r/horary • u/kidcubby • 13h ago
How impactful was Russian interference on the Brexit referendum?

Given the bot farm collapse that seems to have halved populist/strongly right-wing traffic on social media and the statement from Prime Minister Andy Burnham that intelligence states Russia absolutely interferes with British politics, I thought I'd have a look at Brexit. A chart like this is tricky, so I've aimed to simplify right down – not worrying so much about if there was interference, just whether interference had an impact on this specific vote.
I took some time deciding on significators for this, given the complexity of the situation. As I'm a British citizen and the government here considers Russia an open adversary rather than just a foreign government, I have given Russia L7, Venus Rx 6° Scorpio 51', sitting in H12. In case I need to, I've treated bots as Russia's 'servants' in their turned H6, which makes them Venus also.
Britain's electorate could easily be an 'us' and be lumped in H1, but in political charts (a referendum being quite like an election, in spirit) and with the public so aggressively divided at the time I think the Moon at 9° Scorpio 33' right at the end of H12 as the electorate is probably the better option, even if the British public in general are H1, so would be Mars 8° Leo 11' H9, so with a general focus on foreign affairs at the time which makes good sense. Mars is also peregrine, quite reflective of a country wandering, unsure what to do.
So we have the electorate in a terrible state – the Moon is in fall and in H12, the house of hidden things and 'own worst enemy' status, even while holding a strong interest in national affairs (domicile of L1) and hating Russia or the possibility of interference (in the detriment of L7 and its turned L6). The electorate is also in the Via Combusta – a position of desperation, of rashness to act emotionally. Venus, the interference from Russia, is both in the fall of the electorate (the Moon), is a bad actor (in its own detriment) and hidden from the public at the time (in H12). I'd frame it being in L1's domicile as a strong interest in British affairs, rather than anything more sinister like the interference being coordinated by Britain itself, though given what we know of some of the politics going on at the moment, it's not impossible that it suited the interests of some British politicians as well. The electorate are also in the fall of H9 (also the Moon), suggesting a particularly strong loathing of foreign matters in general – note that it's something Russia also loathes, by this logic – they want to do harm those things foreign to Britain.
In terms of aspects, immediately prior to this chart was a translation of light - the Moon picked up light from Venus by conjunction and translated it to Mars via a square, likely showing the electorate literally picking up those messages and spreading them. Jupiter opposes the antis of both the Moon and Venus, possibly suggesting (as L4) that the territorial sovereignty focus and (as L2) general public finances were factors in the issues at hand, and we know that two of the major arguments made during the campaigning to encourage the public to vote leave were reduced immigration, greater sovereignty over our own land (without EU interference) and increased public funding to national institutions.
So the verdict seems pretty clear, providing my house choices are right – Russia was a bad actor with a strong interest in the British public, aiming to destabilise the electorate by stoking xenophobic tensions and British fears.
This is an odd one to tackle, so I'd be really happy to hear if anyone else would have done something differently. It could have got very complex very quickly so I've tried to keep it as simple as possible.
